Why Write Fiction? Top Ten Reasons

Why write fiction? There are loads of reasons to not start, or to quit, writing fiction. Here are just a few…

• There are too many people writing, now more than ever.
• The odds are not in your favor for grabbing an agent or publisher’s attention.
• You won’t get rich.
• The work takes years.
• It’s a hard, frightening, and lonely path.
• Critique partners, reviewers, and your own internal voice have the power to rip your heart out.

Have I talked you into quitting (or not starting) yet?

Don’t… not yet. Instead, sink yourself in all the reasons to write fiction!

Imagine a world with no stories. No books. No thanks!

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” –Dorothy Parker

Why Write Fiction? Here are the top 10 reasons

10. Think about what studying fiction does to expand and enrich the other types of your writing and writing life.
11. When you love stories, you can read them (passive) or you can write them. Create them. So go create!
12. That moment when you have a writing breakthrough and write a terrific scene or story, and the world of fiction writing opens along with a soaring joy. It’s hard to top that feeling.
13. The path of discovery provided by working in a purely creative world.
14. Creating a world, people, and situations that can’t happen in reality.
15. What exploring fiction teaches you about the world and your own writing process.
16. Spending time in your fictional world and the possibilities that open to you when you are there. The endless creativity that is ignited.
17. Fiction uses stories to tell truths that can’t be otherwise told with the same power and impression.
18. Speaking of power, think of the ability to touch people’s hearts in a way they’ll remember forever.

Why write fiction?

Practical voices speak from inside are telling you to quit… you are wasting your time, a ton of other to-do list items need to get done and you are sitting around, making stuff up.

Sometimes you read a marvelous book and that voice tells you to give up, after all you will never write like that.

It’s true.

Your voice is a unique one in the world—And that is yet another reason to write fiction.

Embrace and empower your own unique, powerful storytelling voice.

“A writer is a world trapped in a person.” –Victor Hugo

Go ahead. Write. Isn’t it time you let that world out?